Friday, March 29, 2024

Luke Ryan – Nipping Over to Belgium and Winning on the Kermis circuit

-

HomeInterviewsLuke Ryan - Nipping Over to Belgium and Winning on the Kermis...

‘That website of yours is seriously dire; all old boys from the past and testers – I thought you guys were into reporting on the young guys who are out doing the business in Flanders?’

One thing you could never accuse our lifelong friend, critic and soothsayer, Viktor of is sugar coating it.

But the man was right; it’s high time we looked east again, across the North Sea to where bike racing isn’t an aberration, where it’s in the soil and a barrier to hang over with your Jupiler and frites is never far away.

A name which we’ve seen cropping up this year is that of Luke Ryan (Richardsons-Trek Road Team) and recently he won a kermis at Torhout.

There’s a man to have a word with…

Luke Ryan
Luke Ryan. Photo©DPM

Nice one Luke, the win in Torhout. Can you give us your background, please.

“I’m 25 years-old, I live in Canterbury and started racing at 19 so this is my seventh season.

“I ride for Richardsons-Trek and this will be my fourth season with them.”

Tell us about the team.

We’re probably the last of the true amateurs, nothing fancy, no team car but the guys at Richardsons love the sport, we don’t have a big budget but we really enjoy our racing – we’re always last to leave the car park, too busy chatting!

“Andy Lyons is our manager, he’s very experienced and still races himself – which is great because you can always turn to him for advice and he’s right there for you.”

Those orange Treks look nice.

“Yeah, Trek Emondas with Bontrager carbon clinchers.

“I love riding on tubs but the Bontrager clinchers are the best wheels I’ve ever ridden.

“As an 80 kg. rider I have a tendency to break equipment – I used to trash wheels and frames regularly but not now with the Trek and Bontrager kit.”

Tell us about your UK palmarès.

“I won the National B road race and quite a few crits in the south, there are lots of circuits with mid-week crits to race; Hog Hill, Hillingdon, Velo Park…”

Luke Ryan
The Richardsons Cycles team Trek.

So you’re ‘raiding’ into Flanders rather than based over there?

“It’s 20 minutes to Dover from my home and a day return on the ferry is 30 quid; it’s much easier for me to race in Belgium than it is to ride up north – six hours up the A1!

“There’s always a race in West Flanders and they’re mental – good mental but mental – one big long line…

“There’s country lanes, wind, pure racing; it’s tactical but it’s not at the same time – every man for himself, love it!

“I’ve been going for four years but this is the first year I’ve managed to crack it.

“The first couple of years it’d be lined out and I’d be 50th wheel, end up in the third group and get 30th if I was lucky with prizes down to 35th you’d scrape into the money.

“This year I’ve suffered the same but been in the breaks – it’s like Greg LeMond said; ‘it doesn’t get any easier, you just go faster!’

“I’ve made 10 trips to Flanders this year and had five or six top 10’s – you get to know the riders, the teams, who’s good, who’ll work…”

Tell us about your win.

“That was just on Wednesday and I still don’t know how I did it!

“It was a UCI 1.12A, 127.4 K – you get A’s and B’s, the A’s are over a longer distance.

“I was on my knees most of the way even though I was in the front group of about 16 which was away most of the day ‘til another five came across in the last laps.

“There were a lot of attacks and in the last kilometre a Belgian guy clipped off the front, I went with him but sat on him for about 600 metres then I jumped him and went for it.

“If you look at the pictures of the finish it looks like I won a sprint but it was me just hanging on – another 10 metres and I’d have been nowhere.

“That race was 44 kph average but I rode one the other week which was 46 kph – you don’t need an inside ring and much more than the 11, 12 and 13 sprockets.”

I was going to ask about where you stay over there but you have the ‘raids’ down to a fine art…

“Once you get to Calais it’s an hour to most races’ they start at 3:00 pm so I can rise at 07:00 am, have breakfast, leave for Dover and arrive there at about 10:00 am.

“I work in local government so I can work flexi or take a day’s leave; like I say, it’s much easier for me to race in Belgium than it is to race up in the North East.

“It’s high quality racing and if you’re getting up there in the races you’ll more than cover your costs with the prize money.

“I’ll usually have a friend come along – it makes it a bit more fun, my friend Harry from the Catford CC sometimes comes over with me or my team mates from Essex.”

Is it still easy to race in Belgium once you get over there?

“Pretty much, you need a letter from British Cycling and at the first race you have to pay six Euros for a registration card; they read the bar code on that at subsequent races – then it’s 10 Euros entry at each race but you get five back when you return your number.

“Prizes go down to 35th so you can usually win your entry fee back – but really it’s pretty much turn up and sign on.

“I was at one race once where there were 275 starters; they run out of numbers and were pinning bits of paper with numbers written on them on to guys backs. I didn’t see the front once in that race!

“There’s no maximum field because it’s rolling road closures – and you have primes every lap; from five Euros up to 25 each lap; one race I’d notched up 75 Euros in primes in the first hour and then I was fifth – so the costs of that trip were well covered.”

Luke Ryan
Ryan can get properly getting stuck in when the racing’s three hours long. Photo©Martine Verfaillie

Do you come up against ‘combines?’

“Yes and no – though the Belgians will work against you at the end so as a Belgian guy wins, they suss out you’re English pretty quickly – but there are times when they’re pretty honest.

“There were four of us in little group riding for sixth.

“Two of the guys weren’t working and they told me and the other guy who was working that they wouldn’t sprint because they couldn’t contribute – and they didn’t.”

“Have you had any interest from teams over there?

“Not really but then I don’t usually hang around at the end of races and it’s only in the last few months that I’ve started to get up there.

“A couple of years ago I really wanted to turn pro but whilst I’d still like to, it’s not the be-all and end-all that it was.

“I’m just happy to be going well; last year was just one crash and puncture after another, I was at the stage of handing my bike back to the team even though I managed a couple of local wins.

“This year, the last three months, anyway – I crashed early season and broke my hand – I’ve been flying albeit because I work full time a lot of my training is on the turbo.

“So, after four hours in a Premier Calendar I’m still there but I’m not competitive; whereas in Belgium it’s 120 K but because it’s so fast it’s only two-and-a-half hours.”

Do you ever consider heading over full time, try for a ride with the likes of AN Post?

No, unless I could make a living wage but I have thought about a ride with a team like AN Post; in that race I won it was an AN Post guy who took third spot (Jens Vandenbogaerde) – that’d be a good team for me with a programme which takes them into good races all over Europe.

“That’s something I’d really like to do, stage racing – even in a team role, I just love racing.

“If I could earn my living from riding a bike full time then I would – I hope one day that my career path takes me into cycling as a full time occupation at some time.

“In 2014 I was only working two days each week but I had all that bad luck and it reminded me of being a student, again – it’s great fun but you have no money.

“This year I’m working full time and if I have a problem with my bike I can just take it to a shop and get it fixed, I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay for it – I think that’s probably why I’m going better, this year because I don’t feel under pressure, I’m enjoying my racing.

“In 2014 all I wanted to do was to race and had all that bad luck – this year I’ve learned to that bad luck is just that – and you have to roll with it.”

Roll with it’ – isn’t that an Oasis song? With thanks to Luke for his time and wishing him ‘all the best’ for his future ‘raids’ into the Flatlands.

Ed Hood
Ed Hood
Ed's been involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he's been a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He's also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months was often working in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed remains a massive fan of the sport and couples his extensive contacts with an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the minutiae and the history of our sport. In February 2023 however, our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed suffered a devastating stroke and faces an uncertain future; Ed has lost his ability to speak, to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He's working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation, but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time. Ed ran his own business installing windows, and will probably not be able to work again. Please consider joining us to make a contribution to Ed's GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure his future.

Related Articles

Ben Swift – Milan-Sanremo Runner-up; “I can’t think what else I could have done”

Team Sky’s Ben Swift seems to have been with us a long time but the fact is he’s that he’s still only 28 years old, just coming into his prime as a rider. And if any of us thought his third place in the 2014 Milan-Sanremo was a fluke we had that notion debunked when the man from Rotherham stepped up one place on the podium to second spot behind controversial winner, Arnaud Démare (F des J & France) in this year’s race – Démare having been accused of taken pace from his team car on the Cipressa climb whilst coming back from a crash.

Jon Sharples – the man behind Trainsharp’s “Perfect Bank of Knowledge”

Coaches, everyone has one these days and a name which keeps cropping up when we interview riders is that of Jon Sharples and his ‘TrainSharp Cycle Coaching’ company. In time honoured VeloVeritas fashion we ‘had a word.’

Craig Maclean – Totally Focused on Beijing

It would have been his 13th Worlds; but for the first time since 1996 there will be no one from Granton-on-Spey on the British track team, when the series kick off in Manchester in a week-or-so. VeloVeritas caught up with Craig Maclean on the day 'The Guardian' told us that he won't be pulling on a GB 'speed suit' for the team or individual sprints.

Stuart Travis – on Smashing the National 30 Mile TT Record with 53:44

The 30 Mile TT Record was held by Michael (Doctor Hutch) Hutchison with 55:39 but was smashed recently in the Leo Road Club event by Stuart Travis, with 53:44. The record actually fell before the Team Bottrill man finished with Gary Chambers (NOPINZ) clocking 55:09 before Travis depth charged that with his 53 minute ride. Travis also led his team to a new team record by a remarkable 10 minutes. Here’s what Mr. Travis had to say to VeloVeritas a day or two after he put his name on the same page in the CTT record book as some of the greatest short distance time trial riders the sport has ever known.

At Random

Pat McQuaid – “Shay Elliott was my idol as I was growing up”

Pat McQuaid, former UCI President; people forget that before he moved into cycling ‘politics’ he was a good bike rider. We thought it was time someone gave him a break, stopped asking about Lance and Hein and took him back to those days when he was pushing the pedals rather than a pen…

Magicshine MJ-816 Review – Front Light Set

Here in the UK we've been hammered recently by the weather; for the last few weeks Scotland in particular has resembled an Arctic landscape, with blizzards, white-outs, and motorways frozen closed for days - any bike riding that's been done has been in the garage on the rollers, or spinning down the at the gym. The last few days however, have seen a significant rise in temperature and the resultant thaw has us getting the overshoes looked out again, and the lights back on the bike, ready for recommencing the daily commute, training, and some off-road night riding too.

Katie Archibald – Scotland’s Newest World Champion!

It’s not along since we interviewed Katie Archibald – as a member of the GB team which took the world record for the ladies four kilometre team pursuit at the World Cup in Mexico at the end of last year. We make no apology for speaking to her again – but this time we speak to her as world champion in the discipline.

Rotterdam Six Day 2012 – Day Five; Dernys

Dernys, you love them or you hate them, they’re a big part of the Sixes; and always with a capital ‘D’ — Roger Derny et Fils first manufactured them in Paris, in: 1938. There’s some real Derny history on the boards here at the Rotterdam Six Day — the tall, slim, grey haired man who chases the riders up to their events here at the is Bruno Walrave.